Tiers of a clown

A friend reminds us of the Tier 3 COVID rules in a jokey reply (or was it?) to a photograph on social networks where a person is to all intents and purposes breaking the rules. The actual words of Tier 3 are: ‘Where possible, you should stay local and avoid travelling outside your local area, meaning your village or town, or part of a city.’ Don’t worry. I’m not going all holier than thou, although I’m not going to say on the blog, which is read by millions – well, dozens – that I have transgressed. That would be as stupid as posting a photo on social networks that shows you breaking the rules. But when people do get all holier than thou and criticise others after ignoring the rules themselves, I do have a little self-indulgent chuckle.

There’s no need to worry if you have been posting photos on social networks of you breaking the rules, whether that is leaving your local area, ignoring social distancing rules or being with people from different households. Stuff that appears on Facebook cannot be used by the police as evidence, for reasons I can’t be bothered to go into and you wouldn’t thank me if I did. (It would be regarded as hearsay, unless you were daft enough to admit an ‘offence’) But why take the chance?

I know that social networks can be places we like to share stories and photos of our lives. I’ve done it myself on many occasions, although I am not quite as fond as selfies as many of you are (I have a mirror in the bathroom that discourages me from so doing) and sometimes it’s joyous. But, probably because of my recent experience in criminal investigations, I am keenly aware of the line between a great picture and lawbreaking. For instance, if I travelled to another town for something as sad as train-spotting purposes or a walk by a lake, PC Plod wouldn’t prosecute me but someone seeing a photo of said non event on say Facebook might point out, as my friend did, that I was – and here I paraphrase – ‘a rule-breaking twat’. I suppose it’s one thing people think you are a twat but quite another to post a photo of yourself breaking the rules and proving it.